< PreviousDELIVERING THE FUTURE OF COMBAT Based on decades of innovation, development, and testing, the Oshkosh RCV is soldier-centered, purpose-built, and ready now to exceed the demands of nearly any mission. The evolution continues. THE BATTLEFIELD EVOLVES. SO DO WE.www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 13, 2023 | AUSA Extra 11 Senior Army leaders hear family concerns at town hall From left to right, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer answer questions from Army families during a town hall at AUSA’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTO) I n a town hall for family members featuring the Army’s top leaders, one soldier stood and stated his problem bluntly. His wife, he said, “would rather deal with Comcast than try to find information from the Army.” Army Secretary Christine Wor- muth visibly reeled from the rebuke, but then turned to the service’s new chief of staff, Gen. Randy George. “We have soldiers working on this right now, and they have inter- viewed hundreds of spouses, soldiers at all different levels so that you get the same kind of user experience,” George said. George’s solution to the Army’s long-standing failure to push out ac- curate and timely information about installations, particularly online, is a new app called “My Army Post.” At the forum, held Wednesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C., George asked a team of four Army software engineers to come to the front of the room. They had been tasked two weeks ago, he said, to develop the app, building in need-to-know information from gate hours to on-post services and medical and child care resources. Thanks to input from stakeholders across the Army, George said, the app will be designed to be accessible to everyone who needs to get around an Army post. George said at the forum’s outset that making sure families moving to new installations could easily get connected was a particular priority for him and a frustration he expe- rienced as part of an Army family. “I’m looking around at all the people in uniform, and you know what it’s like to show up in a location and not necessarily know where to go, so you know how important welcoming is when you show up someplace, and be- ing able to find the right resources,” he said. This is not the first time the Army has launched a smartphone app aimed at putting post resources and information in a single place. In 2020, the service announced the new “Digital Garrison” app, devel- oped through a collaboration between AAFES, Army Installation Manage- ment Command and Army Morale, Welfare and Recreation. That app is still available, with a 4.3-star rating out of five on the Apple store. It was not, however, developed under the oversight of the chief of staff of the Army and by active-duty soldiers. George added that the app would create a tailored experience for users based on the information they need most. “These are nerds,” George said of the software team, “and that’s a compliment.” George said the team had been given 30 days to present a working solution, but a version of the “My Army Post” app is already available to download from app stores. Better communication Information flow problems go be- yond gate hours and getting around post. As the Army leaders hailed pol- icy improvements for spouse employ- ment, including an agreement with the Italian government that will al- low spouses stationed there to work remotely, George said not enough spouses seemed to be aware of the licensure reimbursements offered by the Army. Since 2019, he said, only about 800 spouses had taken advan- tage of the offer. “We’ve got to do better at getting the information out,” he said. Barracks woes Army leaders also are emphasizing better communication and creative solutions to well-known problems in other areas. For the first time in the family town hall series, leaders solicited real-time feedback via at- tendees’ smartphones on topics they cared about most. When the first question went live—what quality of life topics the audience wanted to hear leaders speak on—the response was nearly instantaneous: Barracks issues loomed above other issues in a growing word cloud. Wormuth acknowledged a Govern- ment Accountability Office report published in late September that See Town hall, Page 25www.ausa.org12 AUSA Extra | October 13, 2023 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Army must prepare for ‘any uncertainty’ around the world F aced with a shifting global se- curity environment that has grown even more uncertain in recent days, the Army is building readiness through the warfighting skills that come with trusting and empowering people, the commander of Army Forces Command said. On the third and final day of the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C., Gen. Andrew Pop- pas led a discussion on what it will take to fight and win future wars, having listened in on security forums from Army leaders in the Indo-Pacif- ic, Europe and Africa. “Just sitting through the last cou- ple of days of engagements here,” he said, “you realize that the world to- day is much more uncertain, and it is a much more dynamic environment than we have prepared for.” “We’ve had a lot of discussions about readiness, and that’s one of the key components here, but one of the things comes up is … ready for what? How do you further define that?” Pop- pas said. “Over the last 20 years of continuous conflict, we’ve had a level of clarity. We no longer have that clarity.” At Forces Command, Poppas said, four principles for training are aimed at being prepared “for any uncertain- ty that arrives worldwide, because we’re a global power.” First, leaders must win trust and empower people, which comes down to the individual, that human dy- namic that defines the Army. “It’s building those teams, building the trust, the competence, making sure that it is a cohesive fighting force that has the will to fight together,” Poppas said. The second principle is that the Army must “win the first fight,” he said, by making sure teams and squads are ready. It also means making sure there is expertise in battalions and bri- gades as well as divisions and up, so leaders can synchronize warfighting functions to bring the Army’s full ca- pabilities to bear. “We don’t have weeks, months or years to prepare our formation. It has to be prepared today, right now, when the call comes,” Poppas said. The Army must also prepare for and win the future fight as a total force, which includes the Army Na- tional Guard and the Army Reserve. Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, command- er of III Corps and Fort Cavazos, Texas, formerly known as Fort Hood, pointed out that with about 600 days since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “we’ve all watched the character of war change right before our eyes.” “We’ve had a chance to really watch and learn to appreciate the challeng- es of large-scale combat operations in the current environment,” he said during the forum Wednesday. “We’ve seen that combined arms maneuver is still a key to success, but we’ve also seen how difficult combined arms maneuver can be.” Top: Gen. Andrew Poppas, commander of Army Forces Command, leads a discussion on what it will take to fight and win future wars during the AUSA Annual Meeting. Bottom: A soldier presses the panelists with questions. (AUSA PHOTOS)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 13, 2023 | AUSA Extra 13 Ukraine lessons better prepared Army to support Israel A s a new unprovoked invasion ignites war in the Middle East, the U.S. Army is watch- ing—and it’s better prepared to as- sist now than it was two years ago. That’s the message from Douglas Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technol- ogy. Speaking Monday at the As- sociation of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C., Bush hailed the transformation that has taken place within Army acquisition in the past year, motivated by the urgent need to support Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia. “It’s been a big year,” Bush said, pointing to the thousands of missiles, hundreds of vehicles and millions of artillery shells the Army has provid- ed to Ukraine, and $25 billion worth of contracting in less than a year to replace those supplies. Beyond that, he added, the service reached numer- ous internal acquisition milestones, including full-rate production for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle and the Integrated Battle Command Sys- tem; key down-selects for programs including the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft; and the rollout of the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army. In moving to de- velop and field warf- ighting gear faster than the historic norm—the XM7 as- sault rifle, he said, is expected to enter production just un- der four years from the start of that acquisition pro- gram—Bush said the Army is prov- ing its capability as “the arsenal of democracy” and answering criticisms about its ability to conduct acquisi- tion at the speed of warfare. “The way you change a narrative is to show you can do it,” Bush said, adding that “the Ukraine war has shown how fast we can go.” As the Army continues to provide materiel support to Ukraine and works to accelerate the purchasing and delivery of systems, Bush ac- knowledged the three-day-old con- flict unfolding in Israel, following the Oct. 7 invasion by Palestinian militant group Hamas, saying the service was prepared to send mili- tary aid there too, if called upon. “If Israel needs ad- ditional support as well, we’re ready and standing by in the Army to help them,” he said. Gen. James Rain- ey, commanding gen- eral of Army Futures Command, said the Army has benefited from having “lessons learned” collection teams on the ground in Ukraine since before Russia’s invasion in February 2021 closely observing the conflict. In ad- dition to insights about the changing nature of warfare, how it’s demand- ing more speed, autonomy and smart weaponry, Rainey said, the war has shown that some things remain the same: war continues to be about the human actors and decision-makers at its core. And, Rainey said, the Army’s for- mations and NCO corps continue to be “the envy of the world.” “The tragedy that’s been unfolding in Ukraine … and now in the Middle East for the last 72 hours, I think we have a moral responsibility to do ev- erything we can to learn from that,” Rainey said. Meanwhile, Bush said, the Army expects to get faster still, with aid from Congress and industry. The Army is in an “aggressive testing campaign” aimed at getting its much-anticipated long-range hy- personic weapon fielded by the start of 2024, and it has fielded its first operational Strategic Mid-Range Fires battery, equipped with ground- launched Tomahawk and SM-6 mis- siles, he said. Among the emergent efforts that Army acquisition leaders expect to set new speed standards are a move to equip Army formations with loi- tering munitions, also known as kamikaze drones, which, with their autonomous elements and ability to improve targeting reaction time, will make the elements “much more ca- pable,” Bush said. Another panelist, General Dynam- ics President of Ordnance and Tacti- cal Systems Firat Gezen, described the work the company has done to meet the urgent demands of the Ukraine conflict with a doubled re- search and development budget and a sixfold increase in production capac- ity for the artillery components that the war requires. “A lot of people are talking about artillery acceleration around the world, but the U.S. is doing it,” Gezen said. “Nobody is doing it at the rate and at the speed that the U.S. is doing it, and it’s all because of the partnerships we have within indus- try and beyond.” Douglas Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, addresses a forum during the AUSA An- nual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTO) If Israel needs additional support as well, we’re ready and standing by in the Army to help them.”www.ausa.org14 AUSA Extra | October 13, 2023 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Efforts at installations aim to help soldiers, families thrive M aking sure military families on large Army posts have what they need to thrive is a big, intensive job—and it extends beyond the installation gates, a panel of leaders said Wednesday. Lt. Gen. Omar Jones, commanding general of Army Installation Man- agement Command, was joined on a panel at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition by leaders from one of the service’s largest posts: Fort Bliss, Texas. Maj. Gen. Jim Isenhower and his wife, Cheryl, emphasized the im- portance of engaging soldiers and families with effective and timely information, and joining forces with the local community to build a stron- ger network of support. Cheryl Isenhower said she’s always working on the challenge of how to disseminate need-to-know informa- tion and updates quickly and reli- ably on a post that’s geographically the size of Rhode Island. One key, she said she’s learned, is identifying “influencers,” those with a lot of con- nections who are good at spreading information via text. Jones said his command is looking to internalize these lessons, with efforts underway to develop better tools for disseminating information at every installation. In addition to the “My Army Post” app announced earlier in the day by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, these tools aim to provide more flexibility to meet local needs, Jones said. “Maybe it’s flyers, maybe it’s digi- tal signs at the installation,” Jones said. “As Team Bliss gets [the tools] and they say, ‘We want to do a little bit more of this, a little bit less of that to meet the needs of Community Bliss,’ they can do that.” An audience member asked the panel about the information the new app promised to deliver, pointing out that it would pull information like military dining facility and post gym hours from Army websites, some of which are not regularly updated and are frequently inaccurate. Jones pointed to a soldier feedback feature on the upcoming app that will help users flag outdated or in- sufficient information, but he also agreed that the issue was a problem that needs to be solved. “You should be able to know be- fore you leave your house, your car, your barracks, what are the hours,” he said. “It should be there at your fingertips, accurate and reliable, be- cause you know that it is up to date. So that’s why we’re going in the di- rection we’re going. … [It’s] one of those problems that we’ve got to solve across the board.” Just as important as the informa- tion delivery mechanisms is ensur- ing the information in circulation is accurate, the panelists said. The Isenhowers discussed their work to reframe the narrative at Fort Bliss, which can be viewed as an undesir- able posting, with an “It’s Better at Bliss” campaign that highlights the post’s best features, including attrac- tions near El Paso. Soldiers also need to “tell the Army story” to the civilian communities around their installations, Jones said, particularly in an era where few Americans have direct exposure to the military. “The soldiers in the room are the most effective spokesmen and women the Army has,” Jones said. “It’s our job, America’s Army’s job, to connect with the American people and to tell that story.” Maj. Gen. Jim Isenhower added that forging connections with the community isn’t just about creating positive associations with the Army; it’s also about making sure there’s a robust support network available for families, the majority of whom live off-post. As an example, he described his effort to bring local religious lead- ers on post for breakfast twice a year to familiarize them with what units at Fort Bliss are doing. “I have been very frank with them and said, ‘If these units deploy, our families are already in your commu- nities, they’re volunteering in your churches, [and] I hope that you pro- vide pastoral care, because the chap- lains are coming with us,’” he said. Lt. Gen. Omar Jones, commanding general of Army Installation Management Command, discusses tools for soldiers and families and answers questions from the audience dur- ing a forum at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTOS)STRENGTH OF PURPOSE Entrust your most sensitive missions to Gulfstream. With more than five decades of high performance, flexible platforms and proven reliability, there is no other choice for civilian and military operations over land and sea. www.ausa.org16 AUSA Extra | October 13, 2023 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Exercises in Europe to focus on real-world adversaries Gen. Darryl Williams, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, speaks at a con- temporary military forum during AUSA’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTO) A s Russia’s war on Ukraine wears on into its second year, the leader of U.S. Army Eu- rope and Africa said that preparing for future fights will mean leaning into real-world battle scenarios. Speaking Tuesday at the Associa- tion of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washing- ton, D.C., Gen. Darryl Williams said that, following NATO’s July summit emphasizing deterrence and allied support of Ukraine, the Army would stress becoming more prepared to fight the real threat in the region. This also means bringing a broad- er range of allied nations into joint exercises, Williams said, and engag- ing in scenarios they’re likely to face based on geography and context. “Our Baltic brothers and sisters will draw first contact, possibly, so what does their stance look like, what forces do we have there?” Wil- liams said. “How are we empowering them? How are they linked to posse up with Finland, and Sweden, hope- fully, in the future?” “We will fight the people who we’re going to fight now,” Williams said of the exercises. While he did not name Russia, he said that exercises featur- ing notional enemies and battle sce- narios, such as the one featured in NATO command post exercise Stead- fast Jupiter, taking place now in Brunssum, Netherlands, would take a back seat to more realistic conflict. Operation Austere Challenge, a re- curring U.S. European Command exercise to be held in March, would feature this new approach, he said. “Our exercise construct—it’s strong now, but it’ll be even stron- ger because we’re going to fight the enemy,” Williams said. “We’re going to practice that way with all of our alliance.” As the Army continues to evalu- ate ways to apply hard-earned war insights learned from Ukraine, Wil- liams stressed the importance of re- action speed on the battlefield, par- ticularly in artillery maneuver. The Ukrainians, he said, were working “admirably” to meet the challenge amid complex obstacles. “The synchronization of offensive operations—the idea that you fire and maneuver, not fire, then maneu- ver, is something that we’re working very closely with,” Williams said. Lt. Gen. Pasi Välimäki, command- er of the Finnish Army who appeared on the panel with Williams, said the war also emphasized the importance and challenges associated with bat- tlefield sustainment and building up a mature and capable reserve force to carry on the fight. He applauded the work of the U.S. Army’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command in “pushing through materiel in huge quantities” to support the alliance. Williams said the Army has more to internalize about the challenges of increasingly long logistics challenges and the prospect of having supply lines contested. “The center of gravity of NATO has moved farther east, right through Finland, down through the Eastern Bloc,” Williams said. “It’s going to be contested logistics. We’re going to fight our way into this, probably. So, how do we protect those long lines of communication to get those enablers to support the warfighter on the very tactical edge of the fight?” Pfc. Carlos Beltran-Cayetano, with the 3rd Infantry Division, provides live-fire artillery support on Monday to NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Lithuania dur- ing Exercise Iron Wolf at Pabrade Training Area, Lithuania. (U.S. ARMY/SGT. CESAR SALAZAR JR.)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 13, 2023 | AUSA Extra 17 Allies, partners key to deterrence in Indo-Pacific region A soldier with the 2nd Infantry Division, right, uitilizes a Utah Army National Guard lin- guist to communicate with Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members during Exercise Orient Shield 23 in September at Hokkaido, Japan. (ARMY NATIONAL GUARD/CPL. KALINA HYCHE) W ith an ongoing war in Eu- rope and a new war in the Middle East, it’s more important than ever to keep war in Asia at bay by building the Army’s presence and capabilities in the In- do-Pacific, said Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. By building relationships, forward positions and training areas and conducting regular, campaign-style exercises with partners and allies, the Army is creating enduring opera- tional advantage in the region for the joint force, he said. “The goal is no war, and that is the land power’s contribution to the joint force to prevent that from happen- ing,” Flynn said Tuesday in a forum at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposi- tion. “What those joint interior lines are doing, along with Operation Path- ways and along with training in the region, is to take time and space away from [China], to deny key terrain … and to keep our physical presence forward with hard power to deter a war from happening,” Flynn said. Flynn noted three strategic advan- tages the Army contributed to estab- lish that operational endurance in the region, starting with the creation of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, the first combat training center built by the Army in 50 years. With campuses in Alaska and Ha- waii, the real gem is the center’s ex- portable capability, which has been extended into training centers in Australia, Korea and Japan, and dis- cussions are underway to build one in the Philippines, among other islands. “The point I’m making is, it’s not just the training centers in Hawaii and Alaska, which look exactly like the region, it’s the exportable version of the training center in the region,” Flynn said. “Why is that happening? Because the region sees the value of what our combat training centers represent, and they want to get that level of high-end training in their countries.” The second thing the Army is do- ing, he said, is increasing interoper- ability with allies and partners and increasing “the confidence they have in our tactics, techniques and proce- dures,” Flynn said. Most importantly, the Army’s en- during reach and training opportu- nities with allies and partners are “denying key terrain to the [People’s Republic of China],” Flynn said. “We are taking time and space away from them by being forward in the region with combat credible forces, and we are adversary-focused and we’re con- ducting a series of rehearsals out there.” Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, discusses the Army’s presence and capabilities in the Indo-Pacific at the 2023 AUSA Annual Meeting. (AUSA PHOTO)www.ausa.org18 AUSA Extra | October 13, 2023 ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Experts discuss efforts to build resilience, quality of life T he Army is getting ahead of harmful behaviors by priori- tizing quality of life for its sol- diers, communities and families, a panel of experts said. “Resilience [and] suicide risk is a community and social issue,” said Craig Bryan, a veteran and a clini- cal psychologist with expertise in military personnel and veterans, who moderated a military family fo- rum Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition. “Suicide prevention is not just about stopping people from dying and keeping them alive. It’s about helping them to find purpose and meaning. It’s about helping them to achieve well-being in their lives.” The Army has taken multiple steps to increase soldiers’ resilience and reduce harmful behaviors, including extending its Quality of Life Task Force and implementing new suicide prevention regulations. Social determinants of health, in- cluding issues like health care and economic security, “overlay all of the quality-of-life issues that we’ve been working on,” said Dee Geise, director of the soldier and family readiness directorate and the Army’s Quality of Life Task Force. Though Geise noted that the Army does check in with young soldiers at training posts, it is not yet “to the extent that we need,” she said. Geise also said that soldiers at all stages of their careers may be at points where they could benefit from proactive wellness checks. Times of transition, such as a per- manent change-of-station move or when a relationship fails, are times when soldiers may need more sup- port, said Col. Samuel Preston, com- mander of Blanchfield Army Com- munity Hospital at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The Army’s Mission 100 program, which provides soldiers in Alaska with annual counseling, could be used to inspire soldier support across other installations, said Brig. Gen. William Green Jr., the deputy chief of chaplains who is performing the du- ties of the Army’s chief of chaplains. The program was implemented after a cluster of suicide deaths in Alaska. “In Mission 100, [the Army] made sure that [everyone] saw or talked to someone, either a chaplain, a be- havioral health expert or a military family life consultant,” Green said. “We were able to get those particu- lar folks on the ground [in Alaska]. From all accounts, we’ve heard that they came in and they helped signifi- cantly, and they were absolutely the value added to the process.” For soldiers, every interaction and community connection has the abil- ity to prevent harmful behaviors. “Our communities are our first line of defense, and that’s everything from formal programs that we deliv- er to every touch point that we have with each other, in our community and in our unit to [interactions with community members],” Geise said. “It’s all meaningful engagement.” Subject-matter experts discuss quality-of-life initiatives for soldiers, communities and families during a military family forum at the AUSA Annual Meeting. (AUSA PHOTO) A participant asks a question during a family forum titled ‘Transforming Army Preven- tion, Care, Education, and Quality of Life’ at the AUSA Annual Meeting. ( AUSA PHOTO)www.ausa.org ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY October 13, 2023 | AUSA Extra 19 Army champions ‘holistic’ care for soldiers and families A panel of experts discusses Army efforts to improve holistic care for soldiers and fami- lies during the 2023 AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition. (AUSA PHOTO) F rom financial education to counseling services, the Army is working to boost a holistic approach to taking care of soldiers and families. Resources that support resilience and help prevent harmful behaviors can be useful for soldiers and fami- lies at any point in their careers, said Robyn Mroszczyk, an Army spouse and the financial education program manager in the Army G-9. “Life happens, milestones happen. There’s all of these different personal and professional points in a soldier’s career but also within a family’s ho- listic life and journey,” Mroszczyk said Tuesday during a military fam- ily forum at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Exposition. “It doesn’t matter where you are in the spectrum. Ev- erybody can use assistance.” To better streamline these efforts, the Army is aligning the Army Re- silience Directorate under the Army G-9, led by Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, deputy Army chief of staff for instal- lations. This way, “we can really look at [resilience] much more holistically and ensure that we’re getting up- stream and [implementing] some pro- grams … to ensure that we’re getting [ahead] of any … harmful behaviors,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Perry, senior enlisted adviser to the Army G-9. More spouses have been seeking out nonmedical counseling more of- ten, said Erika Slaton, director of Military Community Support Pro- grams. “[The] nonmedical counsel- ing program [is] a way for us to pro- vide support around those everyday military life issues that can cause stress in a military context, whether it’s communication with a spouse, whether it is parent to child commu- nication, whether it’s relationships, whether it’s sleep loss,” Slaton said. Supportive leadership and trust are key to ensuring soldier resil- ience, Perry said. “Confidentiality is very, very important. This is where I would say leadership is critical to a lot of the programs that we have to implement,” he said. “When soldiers trust their leaders … and you have these cohesive teams, those soldiers will actually feel very empowered, and they feel like they can bring their problems to their leadership.” Understanding soldiers’ financial situation is also a key part of under- standing their wellness and their risk of engaging in harmful behav- iors. “We don’t talk about finances,” said Mroszczyk. “Yes, there’s going to be times when there are more bills than there is money coming in. … Maybe it’s because they didn’t have affordable housing. Maybe it’s because our spouse lost their job in the middle of a permanent change of duty station. We have to look at ev- erything holistically.” Just as soldiers train, spouses and families can adopt a training mind- set to foster resilience, Perry said. “We have to train our young soldiers, our spouses and our family members to be resilient,” he said. “There’s a ton of resources out there, so we just have to expose them to that.” Soldiers, spouses and family members learn about resources that support resilience and help prevent harmful behaviors during a forum at the AUSA Annual Meeting. (AUSA PHOTO)Next >